Sunday Talks

A Christmas Day message from Blackrock Community Church - Happy Christmas!

There’s no better time than Christmas Eve to think about your Christmas Reception. In fact, as Matthew describes two receptions from the first Christmas – one in Jerusalem and one in Bethlehem - he’s at the same time getting us to consider our own reception of Jesus.

In December you might well have gone to one of the traditional Christmas 9 Lessons and 9 Carols services. Here are 9 lessons from John 1. Each with the call to believe, and each with the subsequent call to have life in his name.

Lots of Christmases and you'd have no bother telling the story. But why was the baby born?

You might find that your pre-Christmas state of mind provides a really good opportunity to reflect on difference it makes that Almighty God sent Jesus Christ to be born as a man. This remarkable little prayer, Psalm 130, reflects the journey of the writer from despair to new-found freedom. It could even form the basis of your own journey as you take the same route. Have a listen.

We are constantly defined by what we have done and haven’t done. In some ways, it is being do-ers and haven’t doners that is humanity’s greatest problem. Into that mess, the Bible has something extraordinary to say about what God has done. Listen in.

Matthew moves his gospel account into a new section at the end of Chapter 9. As he does so, he underlines that Jesus is fulfilling God’s plan to provide a New Shepherd for his people. You have an opportunity as you read Matthew to be reminded of (or introduced to) Jesus’ deep compassion for people just like us. Though this reminder, before very long, issues in a challenge. Listen in.

How does Matthew’s descriptions of Jesus’ interactions with people help me understand who he is? Help me decide how I’ll respond to him? Help reframe my current circumstances? Ask those questions as you listen in and read Matthew 9.

Jesus’ radical mission wasn’t about fitting into religion or even inventing a whole new one. An accusation against Jesus’ followers becomes the opportunity for him to declare the extraordinary way that he himself came to redefine and fulfil religion and to do something remarkably NEW.

There are countless debates about Jesus' mission just as there are disagreements about the fundamental human problem. A lot of times many people attempt to fit Jesus into their own scheme of things. Yet the Bible explains that Jesus came to forgive sin and transform sinners. That was his radical mission.